Aunt Mimi's busy week, Part 1

The past week was wonderful! I was Aunt Mimi for one week in Salem. I loved it. It wasn't all fun and games...little Ella was sick for a few days.

Last Saturday, June 17th I drove to Astoria (and no, I didn't get lost at all)  to watch Ella's dance recital. She was in the hip hop, tap, and ballet performances for her dance level. The recital was so much fun and all of the kids did such an amazing job. My brother has been sick since the day before so he came to the recital and then home again to rest. Michelle, Ella and I went to meet other girls and their families at Dairy Queen because "all the best families go to DQ". That is what the little dancer kept saying. Too cute!

Ella and I played all evening. She is 6 going on 7. Her birthday is on June 28th and we are having her party on June 30th. I spent the night in Astoria so that Ella would be able to spend the majority of Father's Day with her dad before taking Ella to Salem with me for a week. On Sunday morning we all woke up early (my brother was still resting since he wasn't feeling great). Ella made "I Love You Daddy" pancakes for her father's breakfast. Ella's dad was taken his breakfast upstairs so he could have breakfast in bed. He had a large stack of pancakes and some fruit. He ate a good amount of pancakes before he realized that he really didn't feel good. Needless to say his breakfast ended quickly. We decided to let him sleep while we went to the Astoria Sunday Market. The market there is really nice. I was able to get fresh berries, asparagus and of course caramel popcorn. One woman had very unique and beautiful bracelets and necklaces. She used sea glass and she made her own silver beads. I wanted to buy one, but they are very pricey and I just didn't know how much I would really wear it. Now a days I try to think about what I need for Japan,  not just what I want. (This can be difficult.)

Ella and I drove to Salem about 3:30ish. I made it to Salem just fine with one exception...I couldn't find my apartment building. I know what you are thinking. You are saying, "What? You could drive all the way to Astoria and back without any trouble but you couldn't find where you live?". Yes, that is what I am saying. I only made one little error. I turned left when I should have turned right. I had to call Mark to ask him where to go. I am sure he got a kick out of that. (Just so you all know, I haven't forgotten where I live since then.)

Ella loves to play. We played all evening and I by the time I got her to sleep I was also ready for bed. We had big plans for our week so we needed to be well rested. My cats were not very friendly when Ella entered the apartment. I think they hid for the majority of the first two to three days. (Silly cats)

Monday, June 18th. A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village:

Mark, Ella and I all went to the Discovery village for the day. We didn't know what all was going to be there since none of us had every been there before. (Here is the link if any of you want to check it out -
http://www.acgilbert.org/).  There are many older, restored homes that were in different locations in the city that were then moved to this place. We all had a great time. There was a very fun bubble room. You could stand in the middle and then pull up a weight which caused a almost hula hoop looking thing that pulled up and had a bubble going up around you. Very, very cool! There were things to explore and things to play on Ella has a fun time and we were there for quite a while. Ella met a girl and they played for a long time on the two story erector set. Ella almost had me going down one of the two slides that were pitch black and spiral. No Way.....I was about to let go when I was almost hit with a full panic attack. I do not do small spaces that are black as night. No way!

Aunt Mimi doing :jazz hand"

Ella at the end of the slide

Coming out of the slide.

Ella coming to the end of her slide.

The China Room.

Inside the train village.

Working inside a submarine.

The rainforest theater.

Ella climbing around.

Bubble fun!

The story room.

Making "I love you Daddy" packs.

Tap outfit

Portland

What fun we had in Portland today. It was the perfect day to go. The weather was sunny, warm and clear. We could see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helen in the distance.

We left Salem about 7:45 and drove to Wilsonville. We parked at the park and ride and bought our $5 (all day all modes of transport in Portland) and boarded the Trimet. The Trimet left Wilsonville and then stops at several smaller stations before arriving in Beaverton. We had to switch trains in Beaverton and were then on our way to Portland. Let me just say that it is so much more relaxing to go to Portland if you do not have to worry about driving, traffic, parking and all of the one way roads. We got off near the Japanese consulate which was our number one priority this morning. The consulate was actually only a block or two away from our stop. They were just opening up when we arrived so we were the only people there. We had to fill out our visa application and then they took all of our paperwork including our passports. They said that we could return within the next week or so and our visas would be ready. They told us that if we don't hear from them that means everything is fine. If we get a call it is because they have questions or concerns. I am hoping we do not hear from them. The consulate reps were so polite and efficient. I am sure this is a good sign of things to come once I arrive in Japan.

Since we were done so quickly we had the whole day in front of us. We headed down to the riverfront and walked around. There were many people out since it was so sunny and warm. In front of us we saw a ton of geese. They were everywhere. I mean...really everywhere. As I walked by them they were not even phased by me or others who were walking right next to them. When we looked down by the water we saw that there was a whole baby geese nursery. There were two adults who were looking out for them, but otherwise it looked like a little daycare center. Too cute! Mark wasn't as impressed as I was, although he did let me take my "millions of pictures". (One of the pictures shows my headless geese.)

Our next stop was the ariel tram. We had such an amazing panoramic view. It really was a perfect day to go since we could see so clearly. I have several pictures below so you can see what I saw.

Lunch time! Mark and I were both starving so we looked for an Italian restaurant. We found Piazza Italia. It was packed and you could tell that it was good and authentic Italian food. There were people throughout the restaurant who were speaking Italian. The smells and flavors of the food made me feel like I was in Italy if only for a short time. It was one year ago today that Mark and I flew out of DIA headed to Venice. I miss Italy, but I am looking forward to Japan.

While we walked to the Italian restaurant we saw that they were filming something down the road. As we were eating the filming was right outside the restaurant. We could see everything. Well, we found out it is the show "Leverage". I, of course, have never heard of the show. We saw one of the main stars (I have no idea who he is...), but I didn't take his picture since he was eating a sandwich and I didn't know if I was allowed to snap a shot.

If nothing else it was fun to see. One of the local Italians in the restaurant beeped his car alarm on purpose so it would disturb the filming. You had to be there, but it was very funny.

After eating our delicious meal we were stuffed and headed for the train to go home. It was pretty hot while we waiting in Beaverton to catch our connection. We had to wait 40 minutes. 40 minutes without  a bathroom. What is up with that? I went to go into a store but they all had signs posted that said "NO PUBLIC BATHROOMS". Ugghhh...that is crazy. Who has a main connection terminal with no public bathrooms? Let me tell you there were even children who needed a bathroom. Let's hope that the bathrooms are in the plans for the future. Even the  Wilsonville station has bathrooms and it is much smaller. Crazy is all I am saying!

Oh, I almost forgot. You will see some pictures of strange looking heads. These are at all of the larger train stations and they move on a track. They freak me out! The one that is a blue head has a fish in its mouth (just in case you couldn't tell what it was). I personally will have nightmare about these. I had to share them those because they are so bizarre.

We arrived home about 5:00ish. What a great day to be out and about. Now I am going to relax before I get things ready for my drive to Astoria tomorrow.

Enjoy the photos!

Change of plans for the day...

We had our day all planned out. We were going to get up and be ready to leave our house early enough to catch the train from Wilsonville to Portland. Our goal was to visit the Japanese consulate to get our work visas. Well, we did get up and ready early but we had to run by Kinkos to get something sent quickly. Afterwards I drove us to Wilsonville. We found the park and ride area and thought it looked pretty calm and quiet. As we went to the kiosk to buy our tickets we realized why it was so calm and quiet - the last train had already come and gone. The last train leaves at 8:50 AM. We had missed it by about 40 minutes. Now we know for tomorrow.

With our day becoming wide open we went to the outlet mall that is north of Salem in Woodburn. It is a huge outlet mall with 16 more stores coming this year. Since we did not have to be anywhere we walked around the mall to see what stores were there. It is a great mall. They were having some good sales (some places 70% off), but I am going to hold out for their Fourth of July sidewalk sale. They will have even better sales going on and by then I will know what I need to help complete my new wardrobe for Japan. For those of you who love Coach, there are so many adorable purses. I am thinking I will have to get one before I leave, but need help with what is the "in and latest" styles.

We went to Orupa for lunch. This is a nice looking restaurant near the city center in Salem. We have tried to go two other times but we were too late. They close at 2:30 until 4:30. Today was our lucky day. We got there about 12:30 and it wasn't very crowded at all. They have a great selection of food (even for me). Mark and I both liked our selections. I had the pizza rustic and Mark had a chicken pesto sandwich. He had fries with that and then came in a cast iron pan to keep them hot. Very clever! We will go back for sure. I am thinking my mother and niece might enjoy having lunch there.

Once we got home Mark decided to find a location where he could finally go kayaking. So far he has struck out. Yesterday he went out on his bike to scope out the area. He found one park about two miles away from where we live. We went there today (pictures included below) to see where he go either kayak from or to. The park is HUGE. We walked back and found it to be beautiful. It is green and the temperature dropped significantly once we were in the tree covered areas. There were no places for Mark to get his kayak in or out that he could walk to. The problem is that miles away from the parking area there are a few beach locations, but there is no way he could walk out with his kayak. It would be so unpractical. We decided to try one more area called Sunset Park. I could get there on my own so the plan was we would go back to the apartment and he would put his kayak in the water there and then go down to Sunset Park. Well, it all sounded good until he went to find where he could get in at the apartments. There is at least a 6 foot drop for him to get in and it doesn't seem very realistic. So, once again he hasn't been able to kayak. This weekend he will have to do more research to find a realistic and practical place to kayak. I am thinking he will just have to drive to a lake and kayak around the lake.

Mark will be on his own this weekend because I am driving to Astoria to watch my little Ella's dance recital. I will spend the night with her and then later on Sunday she will return to Salem with me. I am looking forward to our time together. I have a list of activities for us to do.

Now we are home and I am going to relax and read the magazines I got in the mail today. Sounds like a great plan to me.

Below I have some photos from the park today. It was very, very beautiful.

Kayaking Time

Well, before everyone gets excited that I might be out kayaking think again. Mark got to get his new kayak today. We had to drive north to Tigard to the REI since we do not have one in Salem. Mark had to go with red since that is the only color they had in stock. It was surprising how many places Mark called before finding a store in Oregon that had a kayak in stock. He needed one that wasn't too long since he will have to haul it up and down the stairs of the apartment to get it to the river. We are thinking that I will drive him up the river and then he will kayak to the apartments, otherwise he will start at the apartment and then I will pick him up somewhere down the river. We will see what works best.

We also had to our our cats to meet their new vet this morning. I will say that they did not enjoy that very much. The vet is very nice and she will get all of our paperwork ready for the cats to travel to Japan. Our poor babies are too FAT. That's right, they are fatty patties. So, they are now on a high protein diet. We were told to feed them more wet food and less dry. I guess this gives the cats a full feeling that last longer. We will see what happens. Everything else was great for their visit. Hopefully they will become more active as they drop a couple of pounds.

Not much else going on here today. More to come....

East on Highway 22

Mark and I decided to take my brother's advice and take highway 22 east. He told us it is a beautiful drive, and he was right. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be rain free and warm. Today it should get up to 72 and tomorrow all the way up to 75 degrees. We headed out of Salem about 9:30 AM.

There are many tree farms, vineyards and farmland along the highway. Some of the houses are so grand that I could picture them on a television show. We first stopped to take a break and get out and stretch our legs in Gates. There were many people there. Many who must have had the same idea as us. They had some vending machines out in the middle and I was so surprised to see a Pringles machine. I had never seen a Pringles vending machine. (No, I didn't buy any....just was taking it all in.)

We continued on our way and we could see the Cascade mountains in the distance. They are still snow covered. Our next stop was at the Detroit Dam. There were many people out fishing this morning. We saw a young boy catch a fish. He was so proud. It was very cute to see how happy he was. I had saw an older gentleman catch a fish and one of his friends helped him get the hook out and then he threw the fish back in the lake. It was either too small or he was only catching and releasing. People can go out and walk on the dam, but people can only fish behind the barriers that are up.

There was a waterfall in the distance from the dam. The mountains around the dam and the lake are breathtaking. There is every shade of green you could imagine. It is almost like being in a fairytale or a nursery rhyme. The signs say "Over the river and through the woods" scenic drive. They are up along the highway. At one point we were over the river and through the woods. I couldn't stop and get a photo because there were too many cars behind us.

We continued along the same route and finally looped around through Sweet Home. Now, Sweet Home does have some charm, but a lot of the buildings along the highway have been closed for some time. We stopped at a Safeway for a quick Starbucks break. Once I saw the Starbucks sign I knew the people in Sweet Home had to be somewhat civilized. We waited and waited and waited while a nice, older woman finished washing the dishes at the Starbucks. We honestly stood there between 5 and 10 minutes before she even noticed us. I was losing hope fast. When she asked me about what kind of syrup I wanted I had a feeling she wasn't up to the standard Starbucks qualifications. In the end we got our drinks and were on our way. The drink was just fine and I needed it because I was starving!

There are many small towns that we passed as we continued the drive. We came upon Lebanon and I honestly was surprised at how large the town was. They have some pretty up to date facilities for their community.

Finally, we headed back to Salem. Lucky for me that the return trip runs right passed Trader Joe's. As luck would have it I needed a few things so I was able to get Mark to stop. They have some delicious sweet potato corn tortilla chips. Mmmmmmmm...if you haven't had them you all need to try them. Well, that would be for those of you who are lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's in your area. I know that counts out all of my friends in Colorado.

I have attached some photos of the drive. It really is a beautiful day here today!